


The Zoo

by futuresteven (orphan_account)



Series: a diamond in the rough [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Connie is a hybrid, F/M, Momswap AU, Steven Universe is Pink Diamond, Steven Universe is a Diamond, connverse - Freeform, the zoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:41:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25051837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/futuresteven
Summary: When Jeff is taken to the Human Zoo, Connie knows that she has to get him back before they go to Earth. Steven isn’t too happy to help at first.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe
Series: a diamond in the rough [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1808644
Comments: 8
Kudos: 37





	The Zoo

**Author's Note:**

> • Pink Pearl/Volleyball is called Pip in this AU!

Steven has never gone to the Human Zoo.

His Pearl (nicknamed ‘Pip’ by his younger self) would occasionally tell him stories about it, but actually going there was ‘strictly forbidden’ by White Diamond. Neither he nor Pip knew why, but they respected the rule out of fear. Even then, there was no reason for either of them to go there.

At least there wasn’t until now.

The Crystal Gems were out of their cells thanks to his help, but it turns out that Jeff got sent to the Zoo at some point. Truthfully, Steven wouldn’t care about this if it wasn’t for the promise he and Connie made.

She agreed to not destroy anything on Earth related to Pink Diamond in any way as long as he helped them escape Homeworld. Reluctantly, the pink-haired boy shook hands with her on it. If he ever went to Earth, he would want to see what his mother left behind. 

Unsurprisingly, the Gems weren’t very trusting of him. It’s not like he really cared, although it could be frustrating having to prove your innocence over and over again. 

Pip managed to steal a ship that they could use. She was more than happy to be the one to fly it. Steven was going to fly it originally, but once he realized that it was nothing like his leg ship he got disappointed.

“I can’t believe you convinced me to help you with this,” He muttered under his breath, glaring at Connie as he did so. 

She laughed. “Steven, you look  _ fine! _ Don’t worry!”

Since he wasn’t allowed to go to the Zoo, Peridot came up with the ‘incredible’ solution to just disguise him as a normal human. He and Connie could then sneak into the human containment area and grab Jeff. While they did this, the others would distract the Gems.

Pip, Connie, and, surprisingly,  _ Lapis  _ were more than happy to help him get an outfit idea. Even the pebbles were shocked when their Diamond requested them to design clothes that looked more “human-y.” 

He was wearing a dark pink hoodie over a black shirt, it’s lighter pink strings tied into a bow. Bluish-gray jeans added onto this appearance, while his gray slippers made him a little more comfortable.

“This looks like something an organic would wear.”

“It  _ is _ something an organic would wear.”

As Connie guessed, she  _ was _ a little taller than him when he wasn’t wearing boots. She didn’t tease him over his height, though. Multiple people warned her and the Gems about how his temper could be explosive at times, after all. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Now was Pip’s turn to pipe up. “What about his eyes and hair? Humans don’t naturally have pink hair and… his eyes are unique to him.”

Jasper glanced over him. “She’s right. He still doesn’t look all that human. Especially with  _ those _ eyes.”

Peridot messed up his hair and made some of it cover his eyes. “That should do it. We can say he dyed his hair before we took him.”

“Do you  _ know _ how long it took for my Pearl to style that?” Steven sighed.

“It’s okay!” Pip reassured, “This is for a good cause.”

Lapis snorted. “You don’t look  _ too _ bad! Besides, this is the only solution for the problem… your eyes would reveal who you truly are right away.”

“Fair point, but it’s still hot with this on,” He lifted his shirt, revealing his gem, “That’s  _ much  _ better. My gem needs to breathe, too.”

Peridot didn’t seem too impressed. “Fine. But when we arrive, you have to put your shirt back down. You don’t want to be caught,  _ right?” _

“I understand that,” He huffed. Connie couldn’t help but laugh. She found his ‘bratty moments’ to be rather entertaining. When she mentioned this to his Pearl she only snickered and said that she hadn’t even seen him at his worst yet.

She was wearing something simple as well: a dress that was light blue at the top and a darker blue at the bottom. It had a white collar and two white buttons to make its design look a little less bland. She hadn’t worn a dress in a long time, not since she went to a party back on Earth.

Everyone got startled when Steven jumped out of his seat and rushed to the window. This time, his eyes really  _ were  _ starry. He gasped. “The Human Zoo… it really  _ is  _ real.”

Connie and the Gems were confused by this behavior, but Pip only softened at his childlike wonder. “I told you it was… I wish you could have gone here sooner.”

The ship pulled into the Zoo’s ship hangar and landed. A nervous silence fell over everyone.

Jasper frowned, pointing out of the window, “Amethyst guards. There’s only two of them.”

Steven crossed his arms, “Even if Connie and I can get away with actually being human, how are they going to allow a Jasper, a Pearl, a Peridot, and a Lapis Lazuli into the Zoo? That’s the weirdest group I’ve  _ ever _ heard of. If they came to me, I’d be suspicious.”

“He’s not wrong…” Connie hummed, glancing around at their group. They really  _ were _ an odd mixture of Gems. 

Everyone fell silent, not exactly knowing what to do. There had to be some way to make them look more  _ real.  _ The most logical solution would be to let Steven play his actual role, but Pip expressed concern over the other Diamonds’ reactions. 

Finally, the Diamond spoke again. “Okay, so… I… can’t believe I’m saying this, but Pink Diamond sent a Lapis Lazuli to drop off two humans at the Zoo. Along with the Lapis is her Pearl, her Jasper for extra muscle, and her Peridot who is doing an experiment.”

“What?!” Lapis was surprised. On Homeworld, it was incredibly rare for Lapis Lazulis to have Pearls. There was no way this plan would work.

Peridot raised a brow. “Do you have any better ideas?”

She sighed, “I guess not, but-”

“Great! Let’s go. I’m missing my rest time for this and I’m tired.” 

At this point, they had gotten used to Steven’s bossy attitude. Most of the time he was actually bubbly and easily excited. However, when the Diamonds were around or when he was just stressed, he would be much more childish and bratty. It was confusing, really.

Once they reached the door, the two Amethyst guards frowned down at them. The first one crossed her arms, “State your purpose.”

“I’m here to drop off these two humans for the Zoo,” Lapis replied, sounding as serious as she possibly could. Acting never was her strong suit, but she knew this shouldn’t be for too long.

“Bad news: The Zoo shut down,” She inched towards Steven and Connie, “Which means, we’ll just have to throw you into space.”

Steven took a step back and Connie tried to seem as careless as the other hybrid did. 

“Heh, look,” She turned to the other Amethyst, smirking. “They believed me.”

Both of them began to chuckle when, suddenly, some sort of elite Gem entered the room and glared at them.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing, Holly Blue Agate.” The guards stayed in attention.

The elite Gem, ‘Holly Blue Agate,’ turned to the visitors with a confused expression. “Why are you here?”

“Pink Diamond wanted me to drop these humans off here and… get a tour for him.” The others glanced at Lapis when she said this. That was quick thinking.

Her eyes widened.  _ “Pink Diamond?!  _ Yes, of course! I’d be more than happy to give you a tour for him!” She seemed amazed, “How  _ unprecedented!  _ Nothing for a millennia and then three humans arrive here only one cycle apart!”

“Jeff!” Connie whisper-shouted. This didn’t go unnoticed by Holly Blue, who dramatically rolled her eyes.

“Oh, their incessant barking! What is it saying?!” She laughed. “The other one was loud, too. All that thrashing about really did make taking him to the containment zone even harder! Tell Pink Diamond I thank him for the humans and that I’d be more than happy to give him a tour whenever he’d like! Please, do follow me!”

They all began to walk forward, but Holly Blue paused when she saw Jasper following her. “Jaspers are to stay at the door.”

“But-”

_ “The door.” _

Once again, the entire group (besides Jasper) entered the first hallway. 

“This facility belongs to Pink Diamond himself,” She began, motioning to all of the pink around the place. “It houses and staffs the, otherwise useless, Quartzes that have no other role. However, White Diamond never allows Pink to come here for obvious reasons. She doesn’t want the Zoomans to taint him. Blue Diamond has been helping out with this place quite a bit, though. For when he’s allowed to visit.”

Pip walked forward and opened the door for them without having to be told to. The group began to enter one by one, only to stop in the middle.

“Only the Lapis and her Pearl may come with me,” Holly Blue stated, “The Peridot may join the other Peridots in the room made for them and… HEY, AMETHYSTS! TAKE THESE HUMANS TO THE ZOO!”

Lapis mumbled an apology to Peridot, who told her to stay strong in return. The door closed and the group was officially separated.

The two Amethysts who were ordered to take Connie and Steven stepped forward and picked them up. 

“Hey, let me go!” Connie began to struggle in their hold. 

The lavender Gem holding her snickered. “These new humans are so spunky! In you go!”

The guards threw the hybrids into a tunnel and closed the door behind them. 

“Are you  _ serious?”  _ Steven began to crawl to the door, only for the lights to turn on and the conveyor belt to stop transporting them.

When Four Gem fingers appeared out of nowhere, both of them knew what direction this was going on.

Connie, who expected Steven to be mad, paused when he laughed. “Wow! I never thought I’d ever be in a situation like this!”

•┈┈┈••✦♥✦••┈┈┈•

After a  _ very _ long and awkward ride, they were dressed only in loincloths. As it turned out,  _ everyone  _ was only wearing loincloths as well. This took both of them by surprise.

They knew right away when they entered the containment zone. Everything was much more  _ colorful.  _ Steven was amazed by this. He never even  _ knew _ some of the colors he was seeing existed until then.

“Connie…?” They finally got out of the water and were sitting in the grass.

“Yeah?” She turned to him. Funnily enough, his gem was still slightly poking out under the cloth. Needless to say, she was glad that her gem was entirely covered up.

“Is this what Earth is like?”

She glanced around. Humans were running around and having fun, laughing and smiling together. There were trees, and waterfalls, and flowers, and grass… but she knew that this definitely wasn’t all that Earth was.

“Not completely,” She replied, watching as he felt the grass with his fingers. “This is more like a utopia than anything! There’s a lot from Earth here, but we’re still in a containment zone. Earth is  _ completely _ free.”

He only hummed in response, glancing around with a beam she had never seen on him before. It almost was like he had been needing this for a while now.  _ Maybe this was what he was really like under all of those masks that the Diamonds made him wear. _

“Connie?!”

The brunette glanced at the source of the voice, only to jump up right after. “Jeff!”

They ran over and gave each other a hug. It was so relieving to see that Jeff was doing okay even after all of this mess.

“Jeff, I’m so glad that you’re doing okay…! When those Amethysts took you I was scared that they would hurt you,” She admitted sheepishly. “I thought they would put you in some horrible zoo where you were chained to the wall and had to entertain people!”

“Connie, I’m completely fine! This place is really nice, actually!” He paused. “Wait, how’d you even get out here…?”

Just as he said this, a butterfly passed by and Steven was chasing it. The human finally to put two and two together before staring at her with wide eyes. She nodded slowly before shrugging her shoulders.

Steven tripped. Instead of being hurt, he giggled and began to roll around in the grass. The girl chuckled, “This is the first time he’s ever seen grass.”

A Zooman popped out a bush and walked over to them, smiling kindly. “Jay-eff! Who are those people with you?”

“Is that a new friend, Jay-eff?” Another Zooman asked, clearly curious as to who the newcomers were.

“Wy-Six, Jay-Ten, this is-” Jeff was cut off by Connie stepping in front of him protectively.

“Let me have my friend back already!”

“Hey, Connie, don’t be like that. Calm down,” He pushed her aside gently and stood next to her. “These people have been super friendly ever since I got here!”

“...What?”

The Zoomans began to gather around them, all greeting them with kind words and compliments. Steven was sitting up at that point, staring at them with a confused expression. He looked like a lost puppy.

“Everyone, this is my friend Connie and… that’s…” Connie squeezed his shoulder gently, silently telling him to use a fake name, “...Starli- Star?”

“Greetings, Coh-nee and Stah-r!” The Zoomans all replied simultaneously. 

“Oh, hey!” Connie smiled at them. Steven, on the other hand, awkwardly waved.

“These people are the descendants of humans brought here by Gemkind thousands of years ago! They’ve never been to Earth!” Jeff turned to her, “Isn’t that crazy?!”

She frowned. “They’ve… never been to Earth?”

“Never!” Jay-ten chimed in.

Their conversation was interrupted by a voice that began to speak to everyone, “Greetings, everyone. It’s time to start the daily routine. Please enjoy your meal during this designated eating period.”

Steven jumped up. “Who said that?!”

Connie shrugged. She was just as confused about it as he was.

“Stah-r does not know what a little voice is. Just like how Jay-eff when he first arrived!” Wy-six pointed out. The Zoomans all began to laugh at this.

Jay-ten got closer to them. “Our little voices guide us through life here!”

“You must all be hungry now,” The ‘little voice’ spoke. The Zoomans agreed to this and walked off, leaving Jeff, Steven, and Connie behind. It was almost funny how impatient it sounded.

“We need to get out of here,” Connie muttered to them, grabbing their wrists nervously.

Steven frowned. “But it’s so fun here…!” He whined.

Jeff still seemed confused by his behavior, seeing as how he was so stern and… well,  _ chaotic  _ the last time he saw him. Connie shot a knowing glance at him.

“Don’t you want to sleep?” She asked.

“Sleep?” He repeated, raising a brow.

“Sorry, I mean… don’t you want to be back before your rest time ends?”

The pink haired boy sighed. “I guess you’re right. Okay, look around for an exit. It’ll probably just look like any other hand scanner and may or may not be in the shape of a Diamond.”

And thus, their search began. It was hard to focus when there was a ‘little voice’ constantly bossing you around in your ears, but they tried their hardest to ignore it. Every once in a while, they would make conversation with the Zoomans and learn more about the Zoo. It was almost unfortunate how naïve they were. Admittedly, they may just be more clueless than Steven is.

Wy-Six tucked a hibiscus behind Steven’s ear. For some reason, he felt really attached to the flower and got emotional. Connie offered to hug him and, for the first time, he accepted.

She wrapped her arms around him and held him close. He tensed at first, but eventually hugged her back and nuzzled into her shoulder. An unfamiliar warm, fuzzy feeling came over her and made her cheeks flush. 

_ What does this mean? _

Eventually, they were able to locate where the door most likely was. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a hand scanner to go along with it, but they were determined to find another way out. 

At some point, Connie realized that Steven fell silent again. “Are you okay?”

He was startled by her, but shook his head and sighed. “I don’t know… they’re all just so  _ happy.  _ It’s like they don’t even know that they’re trapped here.”

It was at that moment when Connie realized that, despite his slight superiority complex and role in Gem society, he was really just a kid who was being taught the wrong things.

The way he questioned everything, the way he expressed fear about the smallest things, the way he wanted to know everything yet still knew nothing…

Steven Diamond was still human.

•┈┈┈••✦♥✦••┈┈┈•

“I can’t believe you think this will work.”

Connie laughed at Jeff’s words. Steven, exhausted from being up way past his ‘rest time,’ tried to help them as much as he could without yawning.

“It probably won’t but… it’s worth a shot!”

They began to bang against the door, trying to be quiet enough so they wouldn’t wake any Zoomans. However, they were desperate to leave. Even the Diamond, who didn’t want to leave for the longest time, was beginning to miss his own room.

“What are you doing?”

All three of them jumped when another Zooman walked out from behind a tree. He had long, wavy brown hair, dark eyes, and was obviously their elder by quite a few years. For some reason, Steven found him to be oddly familiar, even though he had never seen any humans in his life up until recently. He shrugged it off.

“U-1! Shouldn’t you be asleep?” Jeff furrowed his brows, clearly concerned about the other. 

He shook his head. “I can’t sleep. She’s back in my dreams for some reason,” He looked amongst the group. “Are you three playing a new game or something?”

Connie faltered. Should she  _ really  _ tell a Zooman? The confused look in his eyes convinced her to explain. “We’re trying to get out of here so we can go back to Earth.”

“Oh, geez! Can I come?” He sounded hopeful.

“I mean…” Jeff winced.

U-1 chuckled nervously. “I’ve always wanted to visit Earth. She used to talk about a lot whenever we were stargazing together. It was the first thing she would point out every single night, actually.” He rubbed the back of his neck, flustered from something.

The trio glanced amongst each other.

“Well… don’t you have a family here? And friends?” Connie frowned.

For whatever reason, the question made him chuckle. “No, not really. The ‘she’ I keep mentioning refers to the lady who ‘choosend’ me. It’s a long story, but she…  _ died  _ nearly twenty years ago and all I can remember was how happy she was to talk about Earth. I want to go there so I can see what she’s always wanted me to see.”

“Alright, if you say so…”

Steven perked up, “Do you know how to get out?”

The man thought for a moment before remembering something. “My partner mentioned Gems coming in here whenever someone was… ‘hurt,’ whatever that means.”

“Do they enter through this door?” Jeff pointed.

In response, U-1 cackled and shook his head. “Walls don’t open! They’re walls.”

This was going to be more difficult than they originally thought.

“Maybe… someone should hurt someone else,” Connie finally said, making everyone else turn to her in surprise. “Hear me out! I know that sounds bad, but it may be the only way!”

“What is ‘hurt’?” U-1 asked.

“It’s when you feel bad. Not good.”

He let out an ‘oh’ sound, nodding slowly.

The pink haired boy set a hand on Connie’s shoulder, grimacing before nodding at her. “Hurt me. I need to wake up, anyways…”

“Are you sure?” She hadn’t expected  _ him _ to volunteer himself.

“Just don’t punch… you know. I’ll try to be as loud and dramatic as possible.” Connie knew right away that he was referring to his gemstone. She nodded, taking a few steps back and hesitating.

Slowly, she screwed her eyes shut and punched the other as hard as she could. As according to plan, he screamed  _ extremely  _ loudly and purposely began to overreact.

Naturally, this awoke some other Zoomans, who grew fearful as a result. This fear was apparently too much to handle, seeing as how they all began to sob.

The door opened.

Amethysts rushed past them, but they couldn’t care. All four of them were able to run through the door before it closed again.

_ “Run-!”  _ Connie whispered.  _ “We need to get out of here as soon as possible!” _

They all chased after her. So many Quartzes were running down the hallways that they were surprised to go unnoticed. 

She led them to the first opening that she could see. The door closed behind them once they entered. It was dimly lit, giving it a certain vibe that was somewhere between scary and comfortable.

Jeff tapped her shoulder and pointed up. Her eyes widened when she saw tons of bubbles holding Chalcedony Gems in them. There were even more in here than there were in Steven’s room. She glanced at Steven, who was staring ahead with fear in his eyes.

She followed his gaze and stilled. There, sitting on the floor and crying, was Blue Diamond. Steven turned around with fat tears rolling down his cheeks, looking like he was more annoyed than anything. Connie hadn’t even realized that she was crying as well until that moment.

Much to their astonishment, it was actually U-1 that pushed them behind a pillar and fell silent. He knew that they were hiding from the ‘giant blue lady.’

Behind her, the door opened again. This time, Yellow Diamond strode in seeming irritated. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Yellow! W-what are you doing here?!” She stammered.

“Bringing you back into reality, Blue. Pearl, shut the door.”

Yellow Pearl could be seen closing the door. Blue Pearl stood next to her, watching as everything took place. 

“You  _ still  _ have these Gems in here? You should have shattered them years ago!” She pushed a bubble away from herself. “After what Blue Mist Chalcedony did, they all deserve to have a painful shattering!”

Blue paused for a moment before sighing. “You’re right. I just… sometimes I wonder if that’s what Pink Diamond would have wanted.”

“Pink won’t mind if you do. He hates them just as much as we do.”

“I meant the first Pink Diamond…”

Steven stiffened.

“I thought we agreed to just put that horrid planet and this whole debacle behind us,” replied Yellow, pushing away more bubbles.

When she started to move around, the group moved around as well, going in whichever direction she was unlikely to catch them in. Blue looked upset. “Why can’t you just let me be wistful?!”

“You can’t keep coming here forever!”

Jeff tapped Steven’s shoulder and pointed at the exit. The smallest Diamond nodded slowly, confirming that’s where they should probably go.

“And why is that?”

“We need to shatter these horrible Gems and move on from the past! Steven shouldn’t have to be the one to shatter them all!”

U-1 was listening in on them now with wide eyes. Steven, on the other hand, wanted to get away as soon as possible. Connie noticed the way he looked when they began to argue.

They continued to bicker as the group of four snuck around from pillar to pillar. 

Suddenly, the door opened and Lapis, Pearl, and Holly Blue Agate stood in the doorway. It seems that Peridot joined them on their journey once again at some point. She stood behind Lapis.

“And we have arrived,” Holly Blue clapped twice. “That will be all, Pearl.” She turned around with a smile. “My Diamond. My gracious, lustrous, luminous, wonderous Diamond...ssss???” When she noticed that Yellow was also there, her eyes widened. “Oh, my! It’s truly an honor to bask in your radiance…ses?”

“Get to the point, Agate,” Yellow demanded, understandably upset that their conversation was interrupted.

Holly Blue cleared her throat and saluted. “Yes, of course. My deepest apologizes. You’ll be pleased to know that Pink’s Lapis Lazuli has completed his special delivery.”

Blue turned around and glared at Holly Blue.  _ “What  _ special delivery?”

“The special delivery that he requested from Earth, of course,” The Agate was beginning to get nervous.

Steven internally facepalmed.

The other two Diamonds exchanged glances before Blue, obviously suspicious, quirked a brow. “Steven still isn’t allowed to come here.”

Lapis paused, hesitating. “Umm… he requested for me to get some and drop them off before he is able to come here! He wants to make it a big deal!”

“Unfortunately, that sounds like a very Steven thing to do,” Yellow signed. “We’ll discuss things with him later. That will be all.” She clapped twice.

Holly Blue bowed before opening the door and exiting. Steven, Connie, U-1, and Jeff were able to run out of the room before the door closed.

“Two Diamonds?! I can’t believe it! Can you believe it? Well, you probably can if you work closely to Pink Diamond!”

“Of course! Not surprised whatsoever!” Lapis forced a smile.

“I  _ never  _ expected to see Yellow Diamond in person! What a commanding presence! You can feel strength and confidence just  _ radiating  _ from her!”

Jasper joined the group and helped them sneak down the halls as Holly Blue rambled on.

“This outpost is so remote, I was beginning to think we’d been forgotten! But we haven’t! Two Diamonds, one day! What an honor!”

The Quartz opened the ship and quickly pushed the humans into it before following behind them. Pip came out of the Pearl exit and ran into the ship.

“Thank you for the tour! I’ll show Pink Diamond the footage once I return!”

“Of course!” Holly Blue watched as the rest of the group got onto the ship. 

U-1 was amazed by everything while Steven had gone back to being who he pretended to be. 

The ride home shouldn’t take too long.

**Author's Note:**

> Please, do ask anything if you’re confused!
> 
> My tumblr is futuresteven. Feel free to also ask me anything on there if it’s easier!


End file.
